“I did,” I said from the doorway of her bedroom. “Silly Sherbert to be exact.”
I kid you not, the girl crawled over the bed like a poltergeist had taken over her body, skipping past all fours and crawling with her hands and feet. I couldfeelthe surprise stretch my face at how goofy it made her look. I scoffed. “Easy girl, damn.”
“Silly Sherbert? That’s the place in Providence!” she said, sitting on her knees at the edge of the bed. Bouncing excitedly she looked up to me with bright eyes for the first time since our talk. “You didnotgo all the way there for sherbet!”
“I didn’t.” I shook my head. “But I did go halfway to their second location. I know it’s not the real deal but it was the best I could do with a snoring girl at home.”
She smiled and something tight and coiled loosened in my chest. “You are amazing”
“We knew this.”
“I’m only just learning,” she teased. The familiar challenge of her usual tone returning.
“Let me educate you then.” I walked over to her, carefully setting the treats beside her and laying a hand on her cheek. I still couldn’t believe she’d granted me permission to kiss her whenever I felt like it. Sick or not I wouldn’t miss a chance to demonstrate how much I appreciated that choice. I started right then by pressing a soft kiss to her dry lips, making a mental note to get her more water before she got to work on that fruity excuse for ice cream. “Convinced?”
She hummed, pretending to think about it. “Maybe after two or three more of those.”
“Ah, that’ll cost you, Boss,” I said. “Pay up.”
She looked up to with amusement in her gaze. “What do I owe?”
“All your smiles from here on out. No more tears, no more guilt. A fresh start, yeah?” I answered.
Her head snapped back, her eyes moving back and forth between my own. “You didn’t drive all that way for sherbet just so I would smile, did you?”
“Just?” I raised an eyebrow, then bent to take advantage of my new kiss rule again. “Do you have any idea how hard I worked for even one of these things? That smile isn’t ‘just’ anything. It’s everything. And I’m spoiled now, so I refuse to go back to not having it.”
Soft emotion took over her face. It was different from the way she’d been crumbling up until now. It was more sure. Unplagued by insecurity or guilt, and full of a knowing that warmed my heart.
Sliding her arms around my waist she asked. “What flavor did you get?”
“Lime, of course,” I said. “What, you think I’m an amateur or something?”
She laughed again as she beamed into my eyes. “I’ll smile as long as you stay with me.”
And damn was I rewarded by those words alone.
I’d taken them literally, spending the entire weekend by her side. Nursing her back to health and picking up on the getting to know her front where we’d left off the weekend before.
And when Monday came around and I had to leave bright and early for work, we were both surprised when I impulsively suggested, “You should come too.”
She couldn’t go back to her office until after the November holidays and everything she did could be done online from her laptop anyway, or so she explained to me. So I thought she might as wellmake herself at home in my office at the shop… if she wanted to that is.
She wanted to, and on top of spending our days taking peeks at each other in the hall, or over paper coffee cups from the break room, or sneaking touches in passing—we were also going to lunch and staying late after closing time and talking for hours on end too.
Every layer of her I came to know, I found myself loving. Making me wonder how many layers it would take for me to fall for the whole damn thing.
She was incredible in so many ways, but one of the most surprising was that, though she thought she needed help being strong, she was really one of the most fearless people I'd ever met. She would try anything once. Would jump right into it without a second thought and with a confidence that most people didn't even possess with ventures they worked at for years.
Which is probably why blinking up at her now as she sat across from me in the empty shop after hours, I asked, “Can you draw?”
“Hmm?” She lifted her head, her long wavy hair falling over her blue sweater clad shoulders. She usually had it tied half back and neat when she was in work mode, but when she was with me, she let it fall free.
“Is this some kind of trick question?” She asked now as she looked up at me from her computer.
“Why would it be a trick?” I asked.
“Because you must know that any answer I give is going to be miles worse than yours,” she said, her eyes traveling to my tablet and her lips pressing together.
